BREAKING: Democrats win every Grant County race

Long known as a Democratic stronghold, Grant County voters have broken recent turnout records to deliver county-level wins for Democratic politicians up and down the ballot.

A number of hotly contested races this year were focused on Grant County. Two candidates raised in the area are candidates for statewide office — state Sen. Howie Morales, who is the lieutenant governor candidate on the Democratic ticket, and Los Alamos County state Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard, the Democratic candidate for Commissioner of Public Lands.

All Grant County votes have been counted, as of 8:24 p.m. Tuesday, with the exception of 39 provisional ballots and 265 absentee ballots that could not be scanned by machine and must be hand-tallied. Hand-tallied ballot results are expected to be released late Tuesday night, while provisional ballots won’t be verified until Wednesday.

The results will technically remain unofficial, however, until canvassed by the Grant County Commission at their regular meeting, scheduled for 9 a.m. on Nov. 13 at the Grant County Administration Center.

REGIONAL RACES

Given the local connection, the race for governor and lieutenant governor was surprisingly close in Grant County, with Democrats Michelle Lujan Grisham and Morales leading Republicans Steve Pearce and Michelle Garcia Holmes, 6,861 to 4,672.

In Grant County voting in the contest for New Mexico’s Second Congressional District, Democrat Xochitl Torres Small led Republican Yvette Herrell, 6,983 to 4,465.

Incumbent U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, a Democrat, had an easy win in Grant County over his Republican and Libertarian challengers. Heinrich had 6,572 votes to 3,552 for Republican Mick Rich and 1,418 for Libertarian Gary Johnson.

In the Sixth Judicial District Judge race, Democrat Tom Stewart built on a slim early lead, with 6,170 votes to 5,150 votes for incumbent Republican William Perkins. That district also includes Luna and Hidalgo counties, and votes from those counties are not included in these totals.

In Grant County voting for N.M. House District 38, Democratic challenger Karen Whitlock eked out a slight edge over Republican incumbent Rep. Rebecca Dow of Truth or Consequences. Whitlock won 3,972 votes to Dow’s 3,740 — but those numbers don’t include votes from the Sierra County portion of the district. District 39 numbers were much more lopsided, with incumbent Democrat Rep. Rudy Martinez garnering 2,516 votes to 1,148 for Republican Lee Cotter. Cotter lives in Doña Ana County, and votes from that portion of the district aren’t reflected here, either.

GRANT COUNTY RACES

Grant County’s next sheriff will be Democrat Frank Gomez, who had an easy win over Republican Ray Tavizon, 7,131 to 4,182. In County Commission District 1, Democrat Chris Ponce won, with 1,278 votes to Republican Sheila Hudman’s 712. In Commission District 2, Democrat Javier Salas had an even bigger win over Republican Ty Bays, 1,403 to 769.

A county general obligation bond question for road construction and repair took a commanding win, with 8,624 votes for and 2,018 against. The county building remodeling and addition bond had a similar margin, 7,568 for to 3,006 against.

Even before final numbers are available, voter turnout numbers in the county have surpassed any seen in the past two decades — even surpassing turnout in recent presidential election years. For this election, Grant County had 21,279 total registered voters — 11,547 Democrats, 5,300 Republicans, 4,019 “Decline To State,” 134 Libertarians and 279 registered to other parties, according to numbers released by the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office last month.

Through 4:30 p.m. on election day, 49 percent of registered voters had already cast their ballots — including early and absentee numbers. In early and absentee voting, Republicans turned out 38 percent of their voters, and through 4:30 p.m., election day voters swelled that number to 54 percent. Democrats, meanwhile, saw a 41 percent turnout early, and as of 4:30, they had turned out 54 percent of their voters as well. Only 21 percent of voters who declined to state a party preference voted early, rising to 31 percent by 4:30 on election day afternoon.

Despite their small numbers and their first year as a major party on the ballot in New Mexico this year, registered Libertarians only turned out 25 percent of their voters earlier, with a total of 40 percent having voted by 4:30 Tuesday.